Tag Archive: protest

The following events occurred Wednesday and Thursday of last week, prior to four days of planned peaceful protests by Left groups. In addition, on Monday night 100-150 people attempted an occupation of the QT in Shaw, South St. Louis. They were dispersed by riot police, but not before the cops arrested 17 and were then pelted with rocks. In the words of one participant, “The official narrative of this weekend will be massive, nonviolent, confrontation. But, like all official narratives, it is not completely accurate.”

Just after dusk on Wednesday night in St. Louis, a cop killed 18 year-old Vonderitt “Drew” Myers. This is the third incident of cops killing black men in two months – sadly this is not above average. What is above average, though, is people’s response to it. Like Mike Brown, there has been debate about whether he was fighting back, whether he was armed, whether stealing cigars or shooting at police is something you should be killed for. To us, this doesn’t matter. We are against the police and all that they do. (more…)

When Cops Stay Hiding & Go Running:
A Report Back from 8/8 Night of Action & 8/30 March for Ryan Ronquillo in Denver, CO

As the event to raise funds for Ryan Ronquillo’s family drew to a close and the banner reading “Justice for Ryan Ronquillo” was lowered, the crowd seemed anxious. There were about 60 people left of the 250 who came through the door for the event that was co-organized with the family and their friends, along with local hip hop artists Brer Rabbit, Sole, Molina Speaks, Stay Tuned, Jonny 5, and Time. Maybe anxiety wasn’t really the feeling going around that night. People were on edge, sure. But mostly people. The District Attorney Mitch Morrissey had just made the decision to close the “investigation”—If you can call it that—of Ryan’s assassination at the Romero Funeral home on July 2nd of this year (2014). He concluded that because he was in a car, he wielded a deadly weapon and thus his death was justified and all the cops involved would face no further scrutiny. His parents didn’t even know about the DA’s decision until some of their friends found out on 9 News, and were in complete shock. They were shut out of the entire investigative process, and still hadn’t been able to learn the names of those who murdered their son until that night, with the publication of the DA’s decision. (more…)

Reports have come in that NCCIW has cut off all hot water and air conditioning for all of the women at NCCIW, but dogs being trained there do have AC. The Prison Books Collective supports this call out and we are asking people to come out in support of the women at NCCIW and against the prison system that treats women worse than dogs.

Bring banners,drums, pots and pans, your voice, your love for those inside and your anger for the walls that separate us.

This is a Public Announcement:
CALLING ALL PEOPLE OF STANDARDS (especially women):

***Please support this cause. This can NOT be tolerated. Calling ALL Citizens that care, Businesses, Organizations, Restaurants, Social Clubs, Motorcycle Clubs, Churches, Charities, Women in Action, People of Power Community Leaders and etc…

The necessary people have been notified and if ((THERE IS NO IMMEDIATE)) change in this situation IN RALEIGH, NC, its going down: Saturday, July 12, 2014 at 5:30pm….for more information (704) 465 8435…….just your Presence can change the lives of others. We do all things decent and in order…They are serving their sentences, but this is humiliation against women……DON’T SAY YOU ARE A MOVEMENT IF YOU AREN’T MOVING…

Above all, I want to stress that the way in which the state uses time is a method of punishing, even before it seeks to actually penalize you, what I have elsewhere called ‘the weaponisation of time’.

This stretching out of time is a central feature of what punishment is, from the slowness of bringing someone to trial, to the trial process itself, to prison, the purest manifestation of time used as a weapon, against the very nature of what it means to be human.

My partner Alfie Meadows was nearly killed when a police officer hit his head with a truncheon at a demo. After Alfie was charged with ‘violent disorder’, I was so viscerally angry I stopped being able to feel temperature.

The individual is only a symptom of the broader social whole. For decades now, (anti-)psychiatrists, activists and political thinkers have said that mental health cannot be dissociated from the pathologies of the culture in which individuals are deemed to be unwell.

Any supposed polarisation between ‘the mental’ and ‘the social’ is torn apart in situations where political activity puts you in direct confrontation with the state.

When the state’s actions are directly responsible for injury, stress and mental illness, it is imperative that we do not dissociate one from the other. We cannot continue to blame individuals for profound structural wrongs.

I want to talk about the personal impact of a serious, prolonged encounter with the criminal justice system, and the collective impact this continues to have on friends and family. Above all, I want to stress that the way in which the state uses time is a method of punishing, even before it seeks to actually penalize you, what I have elsewhere called ‘the weaponisation of time’.

This stretching out of time is a central feature of what punishment is, from the slowness of bringing someone to trial, to the trial process itself, to prison, the purest manifestation of time used as a weapon, against the very nature of what it means to be human. (more…)

Demonstrators visually and vocally presented the suppressed demands of immigrant detainees on hunger striker to George Zoley, CEO of for-profit prison giant GEO Group. Zoley resides in a wealthy gated community in Boca Raton, Florida, just miles away from the company headquarters.

“We are here in front of George Zoley’s neighborhood to bring the demand of the immigrant detention center hunger strikers to him at his home and know that he cannot ignore them any longer,” said protestor Britni Hiatt.

Over the past two weeks hunger strikes have taken place at two different immigrant detention facilities owned and operated by the GEO Group, one in Tacoma, Washington and one in Conroe, Texas. The hunger strike began in Washington with 750 detainees refusing food and work, and spread to 120 detainees in Texas. Demands of the hunger strikers include: an immediate halt to all deportations, just treatment for detainees, an end to crowding in cells, an end to double judgment policies, adequate food and medical care, affordable calling prices and lower rates at commissary.

GEO Group has responded to both strikes by revoking the rights of detainees, threatening to force-feed strikers, putting strikers in solitary confinement, threatening their immigration status and cutting off communication with the outside world.

“The whistle has been blown,” says Cici Claar, “It’s time for GEO to address these offenses and stop engaging in retaliation and suppression.”

On November 19th, 17-year-old Chuy Huerta died while in police custody under circumstances unbelievable and unacceptable. After his family called the police concerned for his safety, he ended up shot in the front of his head while his hands were handcuffed behind his back. The Durham Police Department used the press to ask for understanding and forgiveness while they extended none to this child or to his family that night or after. Hundreds of people in Durham took to the streets not once but three times to support the Huerta family and to protest against the Durham Police Department; some demonstrators opposed not just its conduct, but its very existence.

Some, who feel safe in their status and homes, marveled from behind their computer screens that anyone would challenge this militarized force that harasses and polices some neighborhoods and individuals, but not others. When the police released tear gas on a march and vigil, these political voyeurs insisted there must be a less disruptive way for a family and community to mourn and protest and that the family’s grief was being exploited by outside agitators. Several organizations, employing the language of nonviolence, reconciliation and peace, sponsored a vigil at the family’s church as a safe space for people deterred by chanting and tear gas. Like the press, they now want to ignore the moment when Evelin Huerta and supporters walked out of the service because the chief of police violated the sanctity of the family’s grief by joining in lighting candles in memoriam. Having given the orders that interrupted their candlelight prayer vigil at the police station a month earlier, he did not even have the common decency to stay home and allow the family to pray in peace – this time in their own church, but rather claimed it as another public relations opportunity for himself. Who in this case is exploiting and not listening to the Huerta family? Who in their right mind thought a space that included the head of the Durham Police Department was a safe space for people mourning Chuy Huerta? And how can those who insist that the DPD must be included in a community’s grief, a grief caused by the DPD’s actions, proclaim that anyone else is an outside agitator? (more…)

All are invited to the Fr. Charlie Mulholland Catholic Worker House annual Christmas morning witness and caroling at Central Prison at 10 A.M. We will rally around the perimeter of the prison on Christmas morning to sing carols. Drummers will also be there to make a joyful noise. We hold a big Merry Christmas sign and bring the only cheer the inmates get on Christmas (The warden does not allow visiting on Christmas to give more guards the day off). Singing starts around 10 am. Believe me, this is a great way to remember what the season is about. Peace and Blessings, Patrick O’Neill

The report below is only a snapshot of what occurred on November 22nd. Our experience did not occur in isolation as a set of incommunicable facts and feelings. It is also not a historical narrative which swallows everything it does not crush. We hold out hope for some other form of thinking somewhere between the two.

“The police kill us youth, us young people, because they are afraid of us. They are afraid of the things we think and the things we know.” – one of Chuy’s friends, at the beginning of the event

On Tuesday, November 19th 2013, Jesus “Chuy” Huerta died of gunshot wounds to the chest and head in the back seat of a Durham police vehicle. While police reported that the 17 year old was in the back of the cop car because he had been arrested for trespassing, the presence of a gun – an impossibility according to normal search procedure – has yet to be explained. The circumstances surrounding Chuy’s death have been obscured. (more…)

Organizers of the Carrboro Anarchist Book Fair express our grief over the death of Jesus Huerta and our admiration of all who took action in Durham last Friday to confront the police in whose hands he died.

Early on Tuesday, November 19, 17-year-old Jesus Huerta, known to his friends as Chuy, was killed while handcuffed in the back of a police car in Durham, North Carolina. He died of a gunshot wound. The Durham police have refused to offer any further details, but Chuy appears to be the third person they have killed in four months.

Chuy’s death is an irreparable tragedy. No investigation or justification can rectify this loss, nor break the systemic pattern of racist harassment and repression of which it is a single example. In a just society, the Durham police would submit themselves to the judgment of his family, rather than presuming to judge guilt and innocence themselves. Instead, in the initial coverage, police and corporate media reported previous misdemeanor charges against Chuy in an attempt to discredit him, even though all of those charges had long been dismissed. (more…)

Family, friends and community members marched to police headquarters

Durham -. More than 200 people took to the streets of downtown Durham on Friday night to march to Durham Police headquarters demanding justice for the death of Jesus Huerta, a teenager who died mysteriously in a police patrol car Tuesday.

Shouting “Justice for Chuy”, carrying signs and headed by the Huerta family, protesters marched from the CCB Plaza in the center of the city to the Durham Police headquarters, whose parking lot was where the 17 year old youth was found dead early Tuesday morning when he was being transported in a patrol car after being arrested.

“I wholeheartedly thank everyone who came out tonight to support us and seek justice for my son,” said Silvia Huerta, the mother of the teenager that died, to Qué Pasa.

Next to the mother of “Chuy” were his four brothers, his girlfriend, other relatives, fellow High Riverside High School and dozens of community members that although not met him wile he was alive, attended the demonstration in solidarity with the family.

The march ended with at least two people arrested after some demonstrators broke windows of the police headquarters and a patrol car. (more…)